It was dull and grey outside. The sun was hidden behind a sky full of clouds and there was no sign of it clearing up anytime soon. It would stay dry for the time being but the wind had picked up indicating bad weather was coming. The treetops and branches creaked and leaned as far as the wind could take them while leaves rustled leaving a harmony of sounds ringing through the woods. Some birds took advantage of the wind, gliding on their big wings, letting their bodies fall and rise with the currents.

Lucas had wandered through the small town of the werewolves that surrounded the packhouse. He had been amazed by how well hidden it was since he had no idea there were any houses until he accidentally wandered in between them. There were no paved roads and the houses seemed to be built randomly around one another. Every house had a lot of privacy but there were no real backyards. The placing itself gave the owners the peace and quiet they wanted.

There were some cars parked here and there and some houses looked to be in better shape than others. As Lucas glanced inside some of them he did notice every home had electricity and luxury depending on what the owner wanted. It made for a contradicting sight. The pack was modern in its ways but you could still feel the old traditional pack values shine through the exterior. He could understand why most of the pack members chose to live here instead of the more accessible town of Greenwood. This was as close to nature as they would get. One step outside your door and you were in the woods.

He had tried to talk to some of the pack members but most seemed to avoid him. The stares were there though; people kept their eyes on him. Lucas had noticed they had reacted the same way towards Azura and she had done the same thing. There were actually only a handful of people she talked to. It puzzled him to see this, knowing how close she was to Andreas and how he treated her as one of the higher rankings in the pack. He had gotten the impression she was a well-known and respected person among them but now he was not so sure anymore what her status was. Azura didn't actually seem to care though and she didn’t talk about it either.

This morning they had finally gone to meet with her parents. Even though they weren’t her biological family, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in the way they treated her. The warmth coming from them as they had welcomed them in was heartwarming and Azura seemed to completely relax again. After the talk with Professor Sloan and Andreas, she had been quite tense and the prospect of seeing her folks again after such a long time had not helped. Her worries had been completely unnecessary as they had opened their home for them as if she had never left.

Lucas had felt slightly jealous seeing the three of them act and talk like a real complete family. Something he’d sometimes lacked as a child after his mother had passed when he was only a toddler. His father had given him all the love he could in his own way but it was still different than having two parents looking out for you instead of one grief-stricken father. Then again, no matter how much these people cared for Azura, they weren’t her true parents and they had no knowledge of any other races besides humans when Azura came to them. Something she had struggled with quite a bit from what she’d told him. Only after going to college at Greenwood was when she finally started to feel truly at home and at ease.

After they’d gotten back to the packhouse, Azura had asked Lucas if he minded spending some time alone to which he hadn’t objected. She wanted to go visit Nora's grave alone and recollect her thoughts, so he’d made his way outside through the makeshift town of the werewolves, and found himself somewhere in the woods surrounding the settlement.

Lucas sat down on a moss-covered trunk and closed his eyes, enjoying the sounds and smells around him. Being here had shed light on why Azura held this place so close to her heart. The conversation he had with Andreas the night before ran through his mind. After explaining how the mark got on his arm they’d come to the conclusion it was acting up because the Phoenix was getting stronger. Why Lucas had gotten it on his arm was still unanswered though. The itch had completely subsided now, luckily. The conversation afterward had been short but pleasant giving both men some more insight into each other.

The sound of a clicking camera brought Lucas out of his thoughts. He yawned and lazily looked around while scratching his face through his short beard. It was a faint shutter click and Lucas looked around until he saw the same boy that had been with Floyd when they had arrived. Azura had mentioned his name but Lucas couldn't quite remember it. It was there somewhere though, in the back of his mind. The boy hadn't noticed him yet as the wind was blowing away from him.

Lucas got up while watching him take pictures of the trees and greenery around them. He was barefoot, wearing a faded music band t-shirt and stained pants. There was something strange about the bulky teen. He had been working out and his hair was cut short like a buzz cut yet his body posture didn’t match that of someone his age. There was a playfulness in the boy’s movements, a sort of carelessness someone his age wouldn’t normally have.

"Hey. You were the boy translating for Floyd when we arrived right?"

The boy looked up a bit startled by the interruption. He turned to Lucas and seemed to pale a bit as he noticed who had addressed him. He gulped and nodded before he spoke up.

"Ye-Yes. I'm Kaenan."

As Lucas took a step closer, Kaenan took a step back looking ready to run for his life. Lucas raised an eyebrow and stopped, keeping his distance. Floyd had probably talked to him too, or the teenager was just insecure about what to do.

"I'm Lucas. I don't think we got properly introduced yet. It was a bit hectic with Floyd like that." Lucas looked at the digital camera the boy held in his hands, cradling it as if it were his prized possession. "Do you enjoy photography? You have a nice camera."

His tactics of changing topics to something universal and non-threatening seemed to work as Kaenan seemed to relax as he focused on his camera.

"Yeah, I do. This weather is the best for taking good photos actually. The colors come out true to their nature and you have less struggle with heavy contrasts between light and dark. Plus I love taking pictures of color contrasts. Like here," Kaenan pointed to the spot where he was aiming the camera before. "You see that red flower? It's surrounded by some fresh new leaves which are still a vibrant green and if you take the right angle, you can use the tree to make the background really dark making the flower stand out more."

Lucas couldn't help but smile as Kaenan enthusiastically started talking. His distant and nervous demeanor had disappeared in a blink of an eye. He had walked closer and his eyes followed Kaenan's hand to where he was pointing. The male snow leopard shifter squatted down to find the angle the boy was talking about and he had to admit, he had a good eye.

"Can I see some of the photos?"

Kaenan smiled back and handed Lucas the camera. He turned it on and took a good look at some of the pictures. He couldn't help but snicker a little as there was a picture of the pond where he had thrown Azura into. It was a good thing Kaenan had not been there to snap a picture of that because she probably would have tried to kill him at that point.

Lucas handed the camera back to the teen. "You have a good eye. There are some really nice photos there!"

Kaenan was beaming and pointed upwards to the crown of the trees.

"You know, when the sun is out, it sets behind these trees. On some days the sky turns this brilliant shade of orange and pink and it contrasts so beautifully with these branches. I haven't gotten the perfect shot yet though." He fell silent as he kept staring up, almost expecting the moment to happen straight away.

Lucas slowly let his gaze fall back on Kaenan. He might look like a young man but the way he acted and talked did not match his age at all. The short talk had convinced him, even more, that something was off. His youthful enthusiasm and whole demeanor were more like that of a child. Lucas couldn’t remember seeing it at the parking lot but those circumstances were a whole lot different.

"Kaenan! What are you doing here?! Your mother is looking for you! Didn't you hear her through the mind link?"

Lucas saw Reyna coming from the corner of his eye. She paused for a moment when seeing him but refocused on Kaenan soon after and headed towards him. The young man started blushing and looked down at his feet as he drew circles in the sand with his toes.

"N-No. I'm sorry! I didn't hear anything. Can you... Can you tell her I'm coming?" He didn't look her in the eye as his head moved upwards but instead looked straight past her as if he was afraid of what would happen if their gazes met.

"You can tell her yourself. You need to practice more with your mind link. We can't have you shutting it out unintentionally when you are talking to someone. We know you're fine with it on short distances, but you really need to learn to keep it up with longer distances. Now contact your mother and go see her straight after."

Kaenan nodded and gulped as Reyna told him off. He looked nothing like a nineteen-year-old now. Lucas fascinatedly watched the scene in front of him evolve but wisely kept his mouth shut when Kaenan stepped aside to probably contact his mother through the mind link.

"What are you doing here and where is Azura?" Reyna had her arms crossed across her chest as she bluntly spoke to Lucas. There was no trace of the hesitant woman she portrayed the night before.

"I was just enjoying being outside when I noticed Kaenan taking pictures so I kindly asked him about it. And to answer your second question, Azura isn't here. She went to visit Nora's grave."

It was hard to tell what her intentions were. Lucas could tell she was on guard just like Kaenan had been but that she was unsure of why herself as well. She eyed him suspiciously before taking a quick peek at Kaenan. The boy turned back to them and almost skipped over to them with a big smile on his face.

"I have to go now. It was nice actually getting to meet you, Lucas. I don't know why Floyd dislikes you so much. Please say hi to Azura from me. See you later, Reyna!" He smiled at both of them and ran away holding his camera tightly in one hand.

Lucas couldn't help but smile as Kaenan ran off. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Reyna was smiling slightly as well as she watched him go. The smile was short-lived though as she looked back at Lucas.

"He's not your average nineteen-year-old boy as you might have guessed." Her voice had softened and didn't match her distant pose. She was still making up her mind about him, but seeing Kaenan interact with him had most likely loosened her up a bit.

"I thought so. Although the first time I met him I had no idea." Lucas tried to sound as friendly as possible hoping she would relax a bit more.

"He had a shortage of oxygen when he was born. Mentally he is years behind. Sometimes he acts like an eight-year-old, other times it's more like he is twelve. Floyd is quite protective over him as an older brother and takes him along on patrol duty at times." She let silence fall as she examined Lucas from head to toe again.

"Kaenan seems to like you though and he was always very fond of Azura much to Floyd's annoyance. Strange as it may sound, Kaenan is a great judge of character. I often find myself trusting his judgment more than I trust anyone else’s."

Reyna curled some hair around her finger as she finished talking. The meaning of her words actually only seemed to dawn upon her as soon as she spoke them. She sighed and licked her lips quickly.

"I'm sorry about what I said last night. I didn't really mean it. I was just scared after what Floyd told me about Azura. Is she really...? You know...a Phoenix? Andreas refused to tell me but Floyd was freaking out about it."

"Who else did he tell?!" He almost did not let her finish before he hastily spoke up.

"No one! Andreas made sure of that. The only reason he told me is that he and I are kinda a thing for a couple of months. Mates… Like a relationship. So I'm guessing it's true? Azura used to train in my group once a week when she was living on campus you know. She was always together with Nora though. I never really did get to know her that well."

Reyna stopped playing with her hair. She looked up at the sky as the wind suddenly seemed to die down. She cocked her head to the side and hushed Lucas with just a single finger when he wanted to talk to her. There was a flurry of emotions going on on her face as she kept her hand up indicating him to be silent. He scratched his beard and just started looking around waiting for her to be done with whatever she was doing. Mind linking was a neat trick but it could be annoying as hell if you were the one interrupted by it and could not hear a single damn thing of it.

"Hey, Lucas!" Reyna ran over to him as he had wandered off a bit and grabbed his arm. "Say hi to Azura from me as well. Maybe you cats aren't such a big thing after all. And a bird that likes to hang out with cats? How bad can that be right? I have to go now. I'll see you later." She flashed him an apologetic smile and quickly ran off. Whatever the message was that she got, it had to be urgent. Lucas had to hold back a chuckle at the idea of Floyd sending her a booty call through the mind link.

A thick drop of rain hit him right on the head. More soon followed and Lucas quickly started walking home. This probably was the calm before the storm. It took him half an hour to get back to the packhouse. He had taken a wrong turn several times and with the rain, all the scents that were able to help him had washed out. He was now completely soaked as the rain had gone from a trickle to a full-on cloud-burst. When he finally arrived back Azura was sitting outside, on the ground, face up to the sky. Her black hair clung in strands on her face and just like him, she was completely soaked.

"What are you doing out here!" Lucas stopped and watched her highly amused as she gave him a huge grin.

"Waiting for you of course! What else?"

She had gotten up and came over. Her eyes were sparkling and the grin that was plastered on her face was one he knew all too well.

"What are you up to, Azu?"

She stopped just out of his reach and pouted her lips.

"Nothing. Why do you think that?"

Lucas laughed as he closed the distance between them. He grabbed her around her waist and pulled her body close against his. He loved seeing her like this. It was as if at these moments she was able to let go of her thoughts and worries and could just be happy in the moment. It reminded him of the days, back when they had first met, where it sometimes seemed she hadn’t a single worry in the world.

"Because I know you. Whenever you get this twinkle in your eyes you're..." Azura didn’t let him finish as she pressed her lips to his and kissed him passionately.

He felt the warmth spreading through his body as he slowly returned her kiss. For a moment it seemed it was just them, nothing around them, just the two of them caught in a time standstill. Nothing else mattered anymore. Even the rain that was pouring down on them was a nuisance no longer. It was simply not there.

He could get lost in her taste, her smell, touch her over and over again. How he had taken so long to realize what she meant to him was a mystery to him now as he held her body close against his. If only this could last forever.

Lucas groaned softly as they drew apart. She looked at him, a flash of concern showed on her face as she noticed his glassy eyes. Without saying anything, he placed his forehead against hers, holding the back of her head as he took a couple of deep breaths with his eyes closed. She seemed to feel and understand his emotions as she remained silent and wrapped her arms around his waist. He kissed her forehead tenderly and drew her in for a tight hug.

She let him.

Just them. He could feel her glowing skin embrace him. He could feel the connection. A thought flashed through his mind. Was this what it meant to have a mate? Were they the werecat equivalent of mates? Did something like that even exist? For a single moment, it felt as if they were one. As if they shared one mind. Neither had to explain anything to the other.

A sparkling sensation erupted inside of him. Tiny little sparks. Dozens, maybe even hundreds moved around from his stomach to every fiber of his body. It prickled his senses, made him feel more alive than ever. It felt as if he were flying.

When he locked his lips with hers again, he was.